Elger Esser
b. 1967, Stuttgart, Germany
Paludo San Giacomo
2002
C-Print on Diasec face
185 x 240 cm (72 7/8 x 94 1/2 in.)
Edition 3/7
Provenance
The artist's studio,
Private collection.
Private collection.
Description
Elger Esser's large format photographs, frequently cast in a soft, almost ghostly light, are of ruins or fragments of things past, of deserted landscapes and rural spaces. Concentrating mainly on landscapes, seascapes and lakes, villages and old buildings his works evoke a desire to explore time and memory. Esser explains, 'Everyone carries a landscape within them, one they naturally idealise.'
Often compared to the pensive atmosphere that is resonant of early 19th-century photography his works pay homage to Romantic landscape paintings, replacing conceptualism with a return to Romanticism.
The present photograph is characteristic of Esser's artistic practice, using photography to capture the serenity of a place, while also suggesting a dreamlike aura, subjects rich in memories. The location is San Giacomo in Paludo, an island in the Venetian lagoon between Murano and Madonna del Monte. The photograph belongs to group of works dating from 2002, in which Esser revisits Venice and the surrounding areas offering his viewers a fresh perspective of the famous lagoon, showing the reality – but also the mythology – of the region in the 21st century. The island that is the subject of this photograph was abandoned in 1961, having previously been used as a military post and gunpowder store. Esser nurtures the sense of isolation through the dramatic composition and sepia colours – the sparse foreground devoid of all signs of human habitation, with the ghostly outlines of the city and its towers faintly visible on the horizon.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1967, Esser was raised in Rome before moving to Dusseldorf in 1986, where he studied at the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie with Bernd and Hilla Becher. Esser's photographs are included in numerous public and private collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Foundation, Kunsthaus Zurich and FNAC Paris.
Often compared to the pensive atmosphere that is resonant of early 19th-century photography his works pay homage to Romantic landscape paintings, replacing conceptualism with a return to Romanticism.
The present photograph is characteristic of Esser's artistic practice, using photography to capture the serenity of a place, while also suggesting a dreamlike aura, subjects rich in memories. The location is San Giacomo in Paludo, an island in the Venetian lagoon between Murano and Madonna del Monte. The photograph belongs to group of works dating from 2002, in which Esser revisits Venice and the surrounding areas offering his viewers a fresh perspective of the famous lagoon, showing the reality – but also the mythology – of the region in the 21st century. The island that is the subject of this photograph was abandoned in 1961, having previously been used as a military post and gunpowder store. Esser nurtures the sense of isolation through the dramatic composition and sepia colours – the sparse foreground devoid of all signs of human habitation, with the ghostly outlines of the city and its towers faintly visible on the horizon.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1967, Esser was raised in Rome before moving to Dusseldorf in 1986, where he studied at the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie with Bernd and Hilla Becher. Esser's photographs are included in numerous public and private collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Foundation, Kunsthaus Zurich and FNAC Paris.